RICHARD C. CLINITE, LTJG, USN

Richard Clinite '49

Lucky Bag

Richard C. Clinite

Kirkwood, Missouri

Stretch completed high school with seven letters in football, basketball, and track, and the presidency of his class and the student council. He then attended New Mexico for two years in the ROTC, where his math work earned him a place in Kappa Mu Epsilon, his social standing a place in Sigma Chi, and his basketball a place on the starting five. Here it was not long before he won numerals in plebe basketball and crew, and graduated to a place on the varsity. In off moments, Stretch could be found lounging in his army B-robe, taking life easy, and planning a campaign to take him from the explorer class into the group that is settled. He has yet to decide what part of the service to enter, but, as he holds a private pilot's license, the air corps would be a good guess.

Richard C. Clinite

Kirkwood, Missouri

Stretch completed high school with seven letters in football, basketball, and track, and the presidency of his class and the student council. He then attended New Mexico for two years in the ROTC, where his math work earned him a place in Kappa Mu Epsilon, his social standing a place in Sigma Chi, and his basketball a place on the starting five. Here it was not long before he won numerals in plebe basketball and crew, and graduated to a place on the varsity. In off moments, Stretch could be found lounging in his army B-robe, taking life easy, and planning a campaign to take him from the explorer class into the group that is settled. He has yet to decide what part of the service to enter, but, as he holds a private pilot's license, the air corps would be a good guess.

Loss

Richard's F9F-5 was shot down on May 13, 1953 by anti-aircraft artillery over Wonsan Harbor. He was a member of VF-153, operating from USS Antietam (CVA 36). (Note Ejection History link says USS Princeton; believe this to be an error based on the squadron history and this book entry.)

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch on May 20, 1953, there's a very confusing account of Dick's loss by an eye-witness. He apparently parachuted into the sea but was unable to free himself from his parachute in high wind. This prevented a helicopter rescue; he was drowned by the time a destroyer arrived.

He was survived by his wife, Camila, and a daughter, Ann. (Information from August 1953 issue of SHIPMATE.)

Class of 1949

Richard is one of 40 members of the Class of 1949 on Virtual Memorial Hall.